


With a little luck

by Kingrey



Category: Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure (Cartoon), Tangled (2010)
Genre: Angst, F/M, eugene being insecure and then being comforted as he deserves, kinda introspection?, this takes place after the movie but before the series!!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-17
Updated: 2020-08-17
Packaged: 2021-03-06 07:27:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,308
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25959784
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kingrey/pseuds/Kingrey
Summary: Flynn Rider didn't have bad days. He was always charming, always confident, and never ever worried about any kind of consequences. At worst, Flynn disappeared for one or two days, but no one could actually attest of any bad days being had. It was a question of reputation, and all that. Eugene wasn't so lucky, in that regard - oh, he was still charming, still confident, quite funny and dashing if you asked him but he cared.
Relationships: Eugene Fitzherbert | Flynn Rider/Rapunzel
Comments: 10
Kudos: 66





	With a little luck

**Author's Note:**

> Done for the prompt "I'm trying to cheer you up" that Bex gave me on tumblr!! I had a ton of ideas but i didn't manage to finish anything but this one so ^^'
> 
> Also it was kinda inspired by Hannamoon's wonderful fic [here in this light](https://archiveofourown.org/works/25340008) in the sense that it made me think a lot about Rapunzel and Eugene's relationship at the very beginning. You should check it out!!

Flynn Rider didn't have bad days. He was always charming, always confident, and never ever worried about any kind of consequences. At worst, Flynn disappeared for one or two days, but no one could actually attest of any bad days being had. It was a question of reputation, and all that. Eugene wasn't so lucky, in that regard - oh, he was still charming, still confident, quite funny and dashing if you asked him but he _cared_. A lot more than he let on to most people, but Eugene cared, it was in his nature, and Flynn had only tried to bury it. And, as such, Eugene had bad days, and he couldn't even hide out until it passed. Thankfully, along with being Eugene again, he had found a family - and he had found Rapunzel. Eugene's bad days were always better than Flynn's good days when she was here.

Didn't mean he had to like them, though.

It had started easily enough. He was bantering with Cassandra, as they always did - he had even started it himself, so really, he shouldn't be complaining - when she said something. A little jab, in the middle of so many others, nearly nothing really.

"Keep going like this and you'll end up all alone, Fitzherbert."

It had struck a nerve. Eugene had faltered, for barely a second, then had kept going as if everything was fine - and it was, really! But he couldn't get this sentence out of his head afterwards. It was silly, and he knew it - Cassandra had said worse. Come on, _he_ had said worse to her, that was nothing!

But it wasn't.

He had talked more at lunch, because he was nervous and nervous Eugene babbled, and he saw clearly the annoyed glances that Frederic threw his way. Even Arianna, as serene as she always appeared, advised him once or twice to take a little more food, the closest she ever got to outright telling someone to shut up. The problem laid with the fact that Eugene was very good at talking with his mouth full, which garnered another scowl from Frederic, but a giggle from Rapunzel, so he kinda won anyway.

Ending up alone. As a kid, it never made sense to him how that could be a shared fear for orphans - they were already alone, weren't they? _He_ wasn't scared of that at all, he would proudly claim to whoever was willing to listen (mostly Lance), because he never had anyone to begin with and that meant he didn't _need_ anyone. ( _Except you, Lance,_ he would add back then.) And all his life, he had tried to prove it, had tried to show that he could do anything he wanted to without help, had dreamt of ending up alone and rich, far away from everyone on an island of his own. He had left the orphanage behind, had left Stalyan behind, had left _Lance_ behind, because he was Flynn Rider and he- he-

Flynn Rider didn't get lonely. (But Eugene did. Eugene was vulnerable and he had hated it, hated the emotions he couldn't stop from flooding him, and his only solution had been to stifle them until he could pretend they didn't exist at all.)

After lunch, Eugene had fled the table in a haste, muttering an excuse he didn't even remember now. He knew Rapunzel still had a lot of activities scheduled, being a Princess and all, and that _he_ had nothing else to do but mope. It was weird, to be so inactive now. As a thief, every day had been a new challenge - he had to keep moving, to keep _stealing_ if he wanted enough money to live. Being able to stay idle was both a blessing, and an incredibly strange feeling at times. It gave him more time to mull over his feelings, in any case. More time to really live through his bad days, without any alcohol to distract himself with, for sure.

Cassandra's remark shouldn't have hurt like it did, because it was illogical. He knew he wouldn't end up alone now - Rapunzel loved him, just as much as he loved her, and- and they were each other's dream and he _knew_ it.

He knew it.

It was simply hard to remember sometimes, because feelings didn't care about logic. He… Had experience in being abandoned, but he had thought that he was done with this feeling at 12, when he decided that he didn't want to be adopted anymore. Eugene was terrified that everything he had gained these last months, everything he had built back for himself once he let go of his life as a thief, would end up disappearing in seconds. All his life, having something meant being prepared to inevitably lose it, but he didn't want to lose this - he didn't want to lose Rapunzel.

He knew who he was when he was all alone, and he didn't want to be that person anymore.

He nearly went to hide out in the library, but he heard voices inside and he was not in the mood to speak to anyone. Especially not to another fancy person that would look at him as if he was nothing but a _thief_ \- he knew his presence in the castle wasn't accepted by everyone, but he hated being judged that way. He hated how it reminded him of the way adults would look at him when he was an orphan, hated the pity and the disgust that came with those stares, hated… hated that, at best, he was only Rapunzel's saviour, but not anyone worthy of their time for anything else.

Nowadays, Eugene knew the castle's layout by heart, always quick to remember a place just in case he needed to flee it - and stealing the crown had certainly taken a lot of preparations on its own, so really, it had no mysteries left for him. Especially one perfect, always empty and quiet spot: the roof. It didn't take long for him to go sit on his recently self-designated hideout, all of Corona seemingly under his feet. The fresh air and the silence were a welcome distraction from his thoughts, and a welcome distraction for his over dramatic reaction too - he had spent the last decades avoiding to wallow into his 'sad orphan backstory', and he had no reason to stop now.

Well. Rapunzel would want him to be honest with her about what he was feeling. But this was stupid, and she was busy with all the Princess' activities her dad had been pilling up on her recently, because of her upcoming coronation. There was no need to bother her with it, and she would totally understand that he didn't tell her - right?

Right. He could totally get over it by himself.

_Keep going like this and you'll end up all alone, Fitzherbert._

"Thank you Cass _an_ dra," Eugene grumbled, kicking his feet in the empty space beneath them, "couldn't you have just insulted my nose or something?"

He would have gasped and defended himself, but at least it wouldn't have put his insecurities at the forefront of his mind. He was doing a good job of ignoring them before, thank you very much. Sighing, Eugene realised he couldn't even manage his fake-anger at her, because he was… tired. Tired of his bad day, already, even if it was barely one, tired of being scared, and tired of dwelling on something that he considered to be ridiculous. He wished he could convince himself that this new life was permanent, that Rapunzel would always love him, but it was hard. Dangling his legs, he decided to count all the houses he could see in front of him, until he was bored enough to go back inside.

He was halfway through a second round in Italian, to spice things up, when a noise on his right startled him.

"Hey," Rapunzel said, her brown hair glowing in the setting sun. He hadn't expected her to find him here, but some part of him wasn't surprised that she did anyway - because of course she would. Her hands were behind her back, and she quickly skipped over to him, always graceful.

"Sunshine," he smiled because he couldn't not, no matter his mood. "What are you doing here?"

"Well, the man I love disappeared on me, after spending lunch looking absolutely miserable," she answered gently as she sat next to him, handing him a cupcake that she had been hiding. "Of course I wanted to find you."

Eugene took the cupcake in both hands, and hoped that the blush he could feel creeping on his cheeks wasn't too noticeable, but something told him he wasn't so lucky.

"A cupcake?" he laughed.

"Hey, I'm trying to cheer you up! What better way than a cupcake?" Rapunzel said teasingly - but she also put her hand on his knee, and looked at him like he was the most precious thing in the world.

How he had ever managed the reputation of a tough guy was beyond him, Rapunzel only needed a few words to undo him completely.

"So," she said, once it was obvious that he wasn’t about to say anything else, "do you… Do you want to talk to me?"

He didn't, really. But he took her hand in his and squeezed it, hoping that she would be patient while he gathered himself. Eugene knew how comforting people was sometimes stressful on Rapunzel. At the very beginning of their relationship, he had quickly understood that her only experience with it was trying to please Gothel after an argument, which involved a lot of gifts and apologies. They had discussed it together, trying to separate what was unhealthy from what Rapunzel actually enjoyed doing - for example, gifts were one thing that she didn't want to give up on, but she was glad that it wasn't mandatory to the process. She was still anxious, though, that what she was doing was wrong, or at least not enough, and while she wouldn't ask for him to comfort her when she was trying to comfort _him_ , he still tried to be mindful of her fears.

"I…" he tried, before cutting himself off. How could he begin to explain all the contradictory thoughts in his mind? Start from the essential. "I love you."

"I love you too, Eugene," Rapunzel answered easily, her skin warm against his.

She was close enough that he could count every freckle on her skin, even the most hidden one, sitting right under her eye, beneath her lashes. Faced with the prettiest view of Corona one could find, Eugene only had eyes for her. He _loved_ her. And he was terrified, at the same time.

_You'll end up all alone, Fitzherbert._

"Sometimes I'm scared that I'm gonna lose everything," Eugene blurted out, before cringing. "I mean, I know that you love me, of course I do but- I-"

"It feels too good to be true, somedays," Rapunzel finished softly. She lowered her eyes, and put her head on his shoulder.

"Yeah," he breathed, putting his arm around her shoulders. "A castle I could understand, but getting to be loved by the most wonderful woman in all the seven Kingdoms?"

"And getting to be loved by the most incredible man in all the seven Kingdoms?" Rapunzel echoed with a chuckle. "Impossible."

" _Ludicrous_."

"Oh good word."

There was a beat, and then they were both laughing, and holding onto each other.

"I love you," Rapunzel whispered again after a while, "and I know that being scared doesn't always make sense, but I promise that I'll never leave you."

Eugene's throat felt too tight after this declaration. It… It meant a lot more than he thought it would, because as much as he loathed admitting it, he was terrified of losing everything. As a kid, ending up with nothing had seemed inevitable; but he didn't want that, he didn't want to accept this future, he- he wanted to be happy. And he couldn't believe he got that chance with Rapunzel.

"I promise I won't leave you either," he answered, because he wasn't sure how to even voice the gratitude gripping him. "You're the best thing that has ever happened to me."

"Same goes for you." Rapunzel shifted, so she could take his hands in hers, and look straight at him again. "You don't have to hide from me when you're upset, I… I always want to be there for you. And as you can see," she smirked, gesturing to their predicament, "I'm not afraid to follow you in the weirdest places if I need to!"

Eugene laughed. "How did you even find me here?"

"I've got my secrets," she said playfully, "and they may involve remembering that one conversation where you talked about how we should hang out on the roof so my maids couldn't find me." Her brilliant smile made him fall in love all over again.

It also made him remember the cupcake that he had put aside. The frosting had melted a little, and he didn't look as good as earlier, but the sentiment it carried was still the same. Most of the time, he was the one bringing Rapunzel's cupcakes, but they meant as much to him as they did to her. It was one of the first things he bought after being a thief most of his life - one of the first things he bought for _her_. This cupcake was proof that he wasn’t the same man, that he was neither sad orphan Eugene Fitzherbert nor careless thief Flynn Rider.

He was just Eugene, and he had found a family now - he had found Rapunzel. And having bad days wasn’t so bad, when they ended with sharing a cupcake with his new dream, alone on one of the roofs overlooking the entire Kingdom of Corona, his new home.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you liked this!! Thank you Bex for the prompt!!
> 
> (also i am still late on my comments, i'm very sorry for that :/)


End file.
